AAAND…The Votes Go Up In Flames While Europe Gives Aid!
Protest vandalism, snarky Euro-comment and more aid money for Ukraine
Just after I had confidently predicted that Russians would go to the polls and tamely re-elect Putin, the polling booths started to catch fire!
At least eight people have been arrested thus far across Russia in what I can only describe as “protest vandalism”.
In Moscow, a video showed an elderly woman setting a voting booth alight. Smoke filled the polling station. She was subsequently detained by police.
Another woman threw an actual Molotov cocktail at a school being used as a voting station in Saint Petersburg. That is a seriously disturbed protest. The lady was in her 20’s and the authorities reassured the public that no one was injured.
Another woman in Moscow poured ink into a ballot box. She was also arrested and charged with “obstructing the exercise of electoral rights.”
If we wanted to get technical, Putin was the one obstructing electoral rights, but that’s not going to fly in Moscow.
Four others followed her example and poured dye or ink into ballot boxes in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Karachay-Cherkessia and Rostov. The substance was a green antiseptic dye known as “zelyonka”. It is a brilliant green in color, and its antiseptic properties make it dangerous to eyesight. One of Putin’s agents once threw it in the face of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s foe who was killed just before the election started.
It is acknowledged that many Russians think the election is a fraud, and opposition leaders have come up with schemes for coordinated protests.
I had not heard of the “ballots in flames” idea, but there could be a “noon revolt” on March 17th, one of the three days of voting. That would occur when everyone who disagrees with the illegality of Putin’s actions comes out to the voting stations at noon, do that people who share that opinion can see that they are not alone.
Meanwhile, back in the world of protest vandalism, in Chelyabinsk a man upped the game and tried to set off firecrackers at his polling station. Again, arrested.
With pre-election protests stifled and emotions bottled up, it seems that many Russians could not be silenced. They picked the only weapon they had in order to make a public statement: a scene in public that could not be ignored.
“The United States condemns Russia’s continuing efforts to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence through sham elections held in occupied Ukrainian territories,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “The United States does not and will never recognize the legitimacy or outcome of these sham elections held in sovereign Ukraine as part of Russia’s presidential elections.”
He noted that Putin continues “to deny anti-war candidates registration on spurious grounds and to deprive Russian voters of genuine choices.”
As Russians voted, the latest wave of overnight aerial strikes from Ukraine destroyed the refining capabilities in Russia’s Baltic coastline, reaching some 700 km across Putin’s territory.
At the same time, dissident Russian nationals opposed to Putin have carried out attacks in border cities including Bryansk and Belgorod in a series of cross-border raids. In fact, voters in Belgorod were forced to leave a polling station to head to a bomb shelter as authorities ordered people to take cover. One of the attackers said that their aim is “to ensure the collapse of the Russian regime as quickly as possible.”
Within hours of the polls opening in the 2024 presidential election, Mr Udot had already gathered evidence of what he said was electoral fraud.
“The farthest regions began to vote several hours ago and already we have footage. We have photos of ballot box stuffing,” he said.
As Mr Udot shows one of the photos, he explains how he can tell the voting process has been tampered with.
“In a normal [ballot] box, ballot papers should lie in a chaotic way.”
“When they lie like this,” he said pointing to a wad of ballot papers that have been folded, “it means it’s been stuffed”.
“People resent these elections,” he concluded.
Bill Browder, the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, accused Putin of allowing no real opposition or independent electoral commission to act as a reviewed. Once the biggest foreign investor in Russia, Mr Browder is now a human rights campaigner pushing for democratic reform and anti-corruption measures in the country.
“To call it an election is an insult to elections,” he said. “What Putin does is completely rig the game from top to bottom. He either kills, imprisons or exiles any real opposition politician… as their ratings were dropping, therefore the fabrication and falsification started growing. This is just their reaction, their means to clench to power.”
Putin accused Ukraine of creating the ballot protest, saying it is waging a “terrorist” war against Russia in an effort to thwart the election. He also accused Kyiv of intensifying military strikes on Russian territory to “intimidate” voters.
Perhaps the best response to that nonsense came from Charles Michel. The European Council president has already sent his congratulations to Putin on his big win in the Russian presidential election — just as the three days of voting begin!
Nothing says “fraud” more than being given the medal before the game is played!
The otherwise poised and austere diplomat sent the message: “Would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today. No opposition. No freedom. No choice.”
Nice one!
It looks like the coming days may be more interesting that we had thought!
And it will get more interesting for Ukraine as well: today European supporters agreed that they will use profits on frozen Russian assets to finance arms purchases for Kyiv. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the announcement following a meeting with his French and Polish counterparts in Berlin. The funds will provide Ukraine with $30-billion. And of course, it is one more thing Putin has to add to his bill for invading Ukraine…one more thing he had not counted on. Europe gets new members; NATO gets new members; the world pulls together to support Ukraine…altogether, not the best decision ever made by a leader.
It’s too bad that the Russians can’t vote to tell him what they really think.
But maybe the burning ballots are the verdict.
We’ll see what else may follow.
Written by Barry Gander
A Canadian from Connecticut: 2 strikes against me! I'm a top writer, looking for the Meaning under the headlines. Follow me on Mastodon @Barry
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” - Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin)
The more things change...the more they stay the same...?